THIBODAUX - The Nicholls State University men's basketball team (11-10, 5-5 Southland Conference) will look to snap a two-game losing skid and clinch a season sweep of the Lamar University Cardinals (9-14, 3-6 Southland Conference) when the Colonels head to Beaumont, Texas on Saturday for a 7 p.m. tipoff against the Cardinals.

Nicholls is coming off a 64-57 loss to Stephen F. Austin in the Colonels' last outing on Wednesday.  Prior to that the Colonels fell 75-60 at Texas State on Feb. 2.  Nicholls will abe looking to regain the form that saw the Colonels win four of their previous five contests in a crowded race for the Southland Conference Tournament.

As the weekend begins, Nicholls finds itself in ninth place in the race for a top eight regular season finish and Southland Conference Tournament berth.  However, just 1.0 game separates the Colonels from third place in the league standings, and Nicholls is just 2.0 games behind league-leader Northwestern State for the number one seed in the conference tournament.  The top 11 teams in the league are separated by just 3.5 games.

One team behind the Colonels in the tournament picture is Lamar.  The Cardinals own a 3-6 league record and remain 1.5 games behind Nicholls in the standings and 2.0 games of the Southland Conference Tournament picture.

The Colonels will look to repeat the success they found against the Cardinals on Jan. 29 when Nicholls claimed a 78-71 victory over Lamar in Stopher Gym.  The Colonels got 22 points each from junior guard/forward Fred Hunter and senior forward Anatoly Bose in the first matchup between the two conference rivals.

It will be a rematch between the top scoring team in the league, and one of the best defenses in the nation on Saturday night.  The Cardinals boast a high-powered offense that leads the league and ranks third in the nation in scoring offense, averaging 84.7 points/game.

Nicholls counters with a defense that ranks second in the league and 26th nationally, limiting opponents to an average of 61.1 points/game.  The Colonels also boast the best turnover margin in the conference and the third best average in the nation, forcing an average of 5.71 more turnovers by the opposition every night.  Nicholls forces an average of 8.6 steals/game, the 28th best mark in the country, led by senior guard Kellan Carter, whose 1.8 steal/game average ranks fourth in the conference.

Offensively, Nicholls will need to find a way to replace the scoring output from Hunter, who suffered in injury in practice on Thursday and will miss the game.  Hunter ranked sixth in the Southland Conference in scoring with a 15.8 point/game average and 19th in the nation in shooting percentage with a .578 mark from the field before his injury.  Hunter was also the Colonels' top rebounder at the time of his injury, pulling down an average of 6.3 boards per night.

Fortunately, Nicholls still has Bose, the nation's ninth leading scorer with an average of 21.7 points/game heading into Saturday.  The Sydney, Australia native turned in 26 points on Wednesday against Stephen F. Austin, the national leader in scoring defense.  Bose needs just 30 more points to take over sole possession of third place on the school's all-time scoring list and just 113 more points to become just the third Colonel ever to score 2,000 career points.

Tipoff between the Colonels and Cardinals is set for 7 p.m. at the Montagne Center in Beaumont, Texas.  The game can be heard in the New Orleans-Houma-Thibodaux area on the Colonel Sports Radio Network, including KLRZ 100.3 FM and KLEB 1600 AM.

Following the contest, the Colonels will return to action on Feb. 19 when Nicholls hosts Texas-San Antonio on Feb. 19 with a 3:30 p.m. tipoff in Stopher Gym.